Star Fox: A Vixen's Departure
by Avenged97
Summary: After Star Wolf's victory in the Anglar Blitz, Krystal finds herself torn between staying with Star Wolf, or venturing out on her own. She is determined not to run back to McCloud, but she feels an outsider to Wolf O'Donnell and his band. In the midst of her uncertainty, an unexpected friendship blossoms. Rated T for language and mild violence.
1. A Negotiation

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 1: A Negotiation

Location: Sargasso Space Station; Hangar Bay

Time: 0800 hours

* * *

Krystal lets out a huff of air as she surveys the damage to the hull of her ship. She'd had the CloudRunner for five years now. It was a sturdy vehicle and it had seen its fair share of intergalactic dog fights and skirmishes. It was old and ailing now. She was surprised that it still had all of its original pieces.  
She presses a hand against the cool metal of the ship and begins to walk the length of the hull. As she paces next to it, her fingers find the littlest scratches and dents. There are some individual marks that she remembers receiving, but otherwise, the damages were less than memorable. She identifies a crater just underneath the cockpit as the toothmark of a Red-Eye on Sauria from a few years ago. Another long scrape that stretched from the tip of the nose to just under the right thruster had come from an Anglarian ship's wing when it nicked her in a dog fight. The initial cut hadn't been bad, but the acidic sea water that coated the ship's exterior had corroded a decent amount of the metal away before she could neutralize it.

"You've just been through it all, haven't you, old girl?" Krystal asks the ship.

It doesn't respond, but instead sits quietly in the hangar bay of Sargasso.

Krystal steps onto the wing of the CloudRunner and slides into the cockpit. The leather seat greets her with a groan as she settles into it. She runs her fingers over the controls and starts as her com-link crackles to life.

"Krystal", Ruffian's voice bleeds through the speakers, "are you heading out somewhere? You need to clear any departures with Lord O'Donnell first!"

Krystal sighs and leans back in her seat. Ruffian had probably spotted her on the security cameras. Sometimes, Sargasso felt more like a prison than a home. She leans forward to open a channel and reply to Ruffian, but she finds her hand lingering over the switch.

 _Should she just go somewhere? What if she turned her thrusters to the station and never looked back? Would anyone notice if she left?_

An overwhelming surge of doubt crashes over her. It paralyzes her. She sits and stares into open space, just contemplating everything that had brought her to where she was: her fight with Fox, her rash decision to seek out Panther, the idiocy of asking Wolf for a position on a team that she had no business being on and much less deserved to be on. Who was she kidding? She was a decent pilot, but she paled in comparison to other creatures like Wolf, and Fox, and Falco.

She suddenly thinks, _I want to go home._

It is a statement that leads her to question, _Where is home?_

Krystal feels tears begin to prick the corners of her eyes. The controls blur in front of her. Her hand still hovers over the communication link.

"What am I doing?" She asks aloud.

She hadn't sought Panther out after her fight with Fox for solace or to satisfy the pettiness of her worser self. She simply knew that the feline had taken a liking to her. More importantly, he had seen her skills as a pilot. Most importantly, he was a member of Star Wolf, and she couldn't think of anywhere else to turn. She couldn't bear the routine of the Cornerian Army, and as much as she loved Peppy, who had taken command after General Pepper's health had declined, he always treated her like a child. She had wanted the thrill of a mercenary life and she knew that O'Donnell would push her to the limit if he accepted her.  
But, Panther had become more of nuisance than she expected. He couldn't see that she had only been kind to him for his connection to StarWolf, and he continually pushed her for intimacy. Once, he had pushed her against a wall and forcibly kissed her. She'd struggled against him and eventually planted a knee into the V of his legs to escape from him. Wolf and Leon had yet to let him forget it.  
While her spit-fire personality was a source of frustration to Panther, Wolf had liked it enough to grant her a spot on the team. Though now, Krystal wasn't sure that she wanted it. She just felt so alone.

 _Fox would take me back if I asked._

"What am I doing?" She repeats the question to the silence of her cockpit.

"Krystal?" Ruffian's voice answers her. He sounds impatient.

Krystal shakes her head and steels herself. She sets her jaw. She cannot go back. She will not run back to McCloud. She didn't need him. She didn't need anyone. She'd been alone from the start, and that was how she was going to proceed. Star Wolf was a team, but they weren't a family like Star Fox had been. Maybe Wolf and Leon were close, but that was only because they'd grown up together in the Venomian Army under Andross's reign. They'd banded together to survive. She and Panther were outsiders.

Krystal sucks in a breath and flips the communication switch. "Tell Wolf I'm not going anywhere, Ruffian."

She runs a hand through her hair and rubs furiously at her eyes.

"Tell him yourself. He's on his way down to you."

Krystal, with her head still bowed, frowns in confusion. _What?_

A heavy thud makes her head snap up. She turns and nearly jumps out of her seat as she finds Wolf O'Donnell perched on her wing. His nose is inches from her cockpit.  
There wasn't anything in Wolf's appearance that made him look like someone to be feared. Instead, Krystal was surprised to find that he was ruggedly handsome in a way, despite his missing eye. It was everything else about him that gave off a predatory vibe: the way he walked with his chest out, how he scanned a room without moving his head, how the curl of his upper lip exposed his canines when he was frustrated. He had a way of narrowing his eyes at other animals in conversation that was slightly off-putting. But, Krystal had come to realize that he only did this when he was sizing his guests up and not really listening to what they were saying. He still did it to her, sometimes, and she was getting better at not feeling so meek under his gaze.

She feels very small as he stares at her through the glass of the CloudRunner's canopy that day for some reason. His gaze is more pensive than usual, and he has caught her off guard. A silence stretches between them in which Wolf stares at her, and Krystal blinks back at him. She waits for her heart to quit kicking in her chest before she realizes that Wolf is waiting for her to open the cockpit.

She tears her eyes from his face to flip the switch on the control panel in front of her. The canopy releases with a hiss.

She looks at Wolf with less timidity and more patience, waiting to see what was so important that he granted her the courtesy of coming to her instead of it being the other way around. Her heart thuds away in her chest.

Wolf's good eye narrows the way it did when he was thinking. "Get out", he says.

Krystal kept staring at Wolf, but this time her mouth made a little "o" shape. She'd registered his words, but the context wasn't there. Suddenly, all the doubts that she had pushed away came flooding back to her. She feels her mouth go dry. Her brain was playing with two possibilities:

 _"Get out"_ as in _"Get out of the ship"_.

Or.

 _"Get out"_ as in _"Get out of the Space Station"._

 _"Get out of Sargasso"_.

 _"Get out of our lives"_.

Her heart begins to kick in her chest again. She wonders if it had ever stopped in the first place.

Wolf's eyes narrow again. The band of his eyepatch is pulled taught as his brows pull together. A frown tugs at the corner of his mouth.

"Get out of the ship." He says, as if he could sense her desire for clarification. He turns and hops down from the wing of the CloudRunner.

She follows close behind.

"You're not flying this piece of scrap anymore." He tells her when she joins him on the hangar floor. "You've been falling behind in flight formations and you're a decent pilot, so I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and blame it on this piece of shit ship rather than yourself. Regardless, this," Wolf gestures to the CloudRunner as if he has already run out of insulting names to pin on it, "can't keep up with our Wolfens".

 _No, no, no!_ Krystal screams to herself. She has lost so much already. She can't stomach another loss. She doesn't know if she can bear the familiarity of the CloudRunner being taken from her, as well.

Wolf must take her silence as a sign of consent because he continues, "Your Wolfen should be ready soon, and then your old ship can go to Corneria-"

"I'm not getting rid of it." Krystal blurts out. Wolf is as surprised by her interjection as she is.

His hands go to his hips. This was another trait Krystal had taken note of. The few times she'd seen Wolf negotiate with someone, he always placed his hands on his hips. Sometimes, he hooked his fingers into his belt and his thumbnails would scrape away at the metal. She wasn't quite sure what it meant, yet. Negotiations generally did not go well when he assumed this position, though.

"You're not flying it in formation anymore, that's for sure. It's hideous." Wolf says.

"It's been through a lot."

"It's falling apart!" Wolf countered.

"I haven't got the credits to fix it." Krystal says.

"You're not flying it with us. It's taking up space in the hangar where your Wolfen is supposed to go. It can't stay here. That's the end of it."

Krystal crossed her arms in a subconscious attempt to hide her desperation. _To hell with it,_ she thinks. S _he has already asked so much of the system's most fearsome space pirate. She can ask one more thing._ She was full of surprises today. She stands her ground. "Give me the credits to fix it, and when it's finished I'll sell it and give you the profit. I'd rather see someone else flying it than see it be turned into scrap."

Silence stretches between them for a second time that day.

Krystal can see Wolf contemplating it. He looks at the ship, and then looks at her. His tail whips back and forth behind him. He scratches his chin, and says, "You're getting a new Wolfen whether you want one or not, and you will fly it. But," his mouth forms a tight line, "out of curiosity, where would you keep the old ship while it's being repaired?"

"There's space in the drop ship hangar where the supplies come in. It could stay there. People could see it there, too. If someone's interested-"

"Fine, fine!" Wolf cuts her off before she can elaborate further on her plan. "I get the point." He scratches behind his ear and sighs. "You're more stubborn than you look."

Krystal can't tell if it's a compliment or an insult. It sounds more like an insult. She snaps back without thinking, "Well, growing up without parents means I didn't have anyone to tell me no."

She's not sure why she says it. Maybe she is mad at him for thinking that she would give up her ship so easily. Her reasoning is irrelevant, though, because it is the wrong thing to say. The comment comes out dripping with sarcasm. She immediately regrets it. She tenses as Wolf's face scrunches up into something between a frown and a snarl. His upper lip curls and exposes his canines.

"I'm sorry." Krystal rushes to mitigate her outburst. She decides that an apology is wrong as well because Wolf's expression doesn't change.

"Do you want your ship fixed or not? Because that's not the way to get it done." His tone is biting. His eyes narrowed and piercing.

Krystal seizes up under the scrutiny of Wolf's gaze. The booming bass of his voice makes her fur stand on end. She doesn't know what to say. She suddenly finds that she cannot look him in the eye.

His voice is low and firm when he speaks again. "I want you to have the controls of the Wolfen memorized by the end of the week. Your Wolfen should be done by tomorrow, and your old ship will be moved to the delivery bay. We're doing flight training on Friday. I'm sure Caruso would be more than happy to help if you need it. He follows you around like a damn pup, anyway, might as well make him do something useful with his time."

"Okay." Krystal says it to the ground. Her arms are still crossed across her chest, but she is holding herself together rather than showing her defiance. She holds her breath and prays for the lupine to walk away, but his boots stay within her line of sight.

"Look at me." Wolf's voice finally breaks the tense silence.

Her stomach tightens. She can't breathe under his heavy gaze. Her heart is pounding so hard in her chest that she swears that he will hear it and be even angrier with her.

Krystal raises her eyes slowly, and finds that Wolf's gaze has softened. His brows are still furrowed, but he doesn't look like he is going to kill her anymore.

"Don't back down so easily when people pressure you." He says it like a command, but Wolf waits for her to nod in recognition before leaving her in the hangar by herself.

Krystal waits until she is absolutely sure he is gone before letting out the breath she had been holding. She feels lightheaded, but relieved. Still, she finds herself asking aloud once more, "What am I doing?"


	2. A Maturation of Uncertainty

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 2: A Maturation of Uncertainty

Location: Sargasso Space Station

Time: 1200 hours

* * *

Sitting on the second floor walkway with her legs slung over the side, Krystal watches the chaos of Sargasso and spends the next few hours pondering the consequences of her conversation with Wolf earlier that morning. She deems the trade-offs as respectable. She gets to keep her CloudRunner for an uncertain amount of time, but, with her new Wolfen coming in and flight training on Friday she'll have to ask for Panther's help or try and figure out the controls on her own. The vixen groans at the idea of having to ask Panther Caruso for anything.

"How different from an Arwing can it be?" She muses.

She knows the answer already, though. She'd seen the inside of Panther's ship in the past. Its control panel was more expansive and complicated than the Arwing or the CloudRunner, with more switches, flashing lights, and gauges than she thought imaginable. If left to her own devices, she would never figure everything out before the end of the week. What Wolf had suggested was true. She needed help, and Panther was most likely her only option.  
Requesting Leon's aid was out of the question. The reptile would sooner slit her throat than help her pilot an aircraft. Wolf was certainly too busy to offer any kind of support, and Krystal was uncertain about his inclination to help her. He spent a large majority of his time overseeing Sargasso, making sure everything ran smoothly and quelling any threats to the station's vitality. With his role in the Anglar Blitz, his position had only become more precarious as Corneria watched his every move. O'Donnell was a skilled leader, but Krystal sensed that the job was taxing. She'd caught glimpses of Wolf in the evenings on his way to his quarters with a sleepless gaze and a weary stride, more than once. Even if he were inclined to help her, which Krystal highly doubted, he wouldn't have the time or patience.  
She groans in frustration and pinches the bridge of her nose. How could Wolf expect this much of her? It wasn't fair. Her uncertainty in herself prompts other questions to surface in her mind, each one worse than the last.

 _What if you don't learn it in time?_  
 _What if something goes wrong?_  
 _What if Wolf gave you so little time to prepare on purpose?_  
 _What if you're not good enough and this is his way of getting rid of you?_

Krystal sets her jaw and tries to push the thoughts from her mind. There is a part of her that still doubts Wolf's intentions, though. It is the same part of her that thinks,

 _Fox would have never pushed you this hard._

She snarls to herself, "That's the point." She joined StarWolf because she knew that Wolf would push her to her full potential. He wasn't going to coddle her like Peppy or McCloud. "I'm not going back", Krystal reminds herself.  
Rising from her seated position, she decides that she needs a distraction from the turmoil of her thoughts. As if on cue, her stomach clenches in hunger. She decides to descend to the lower deck of the space station to see what she can find to satisfy her cravings.

* * *

The space station had changed drastically since Krystal had first encountered it with StarFox during the Aparoid Invasion. Before Wolf had poured his earnings from the Anglar Blitz into updating it, Sargasso had been a dilapidated hunk of metal running on outdated machinery. It'd been an outpost for the worst criminals in Lylat to find sanctuary and refuel. However, now, Sargasso space station was a vibrant place that attracted all kinds of people. Wolf had updated their machinery and made a deal with Corneria so that the station could remain active, so long as Wolf promised to quell any threats to the planet and allowed Corneria guardsmen to visit every so often. With so many soldiers, space travelers, and mercenary bands using the station as a refueling site, it was the perfect location for marauders and merchants to set up stalls and sell their wares. There were so many, in fact, that Wolf had built a designated area for them to do just that. Krystal assumed there was some agreement in place concerning the final destination of some of the money.

She enjoyed the market for several reasons. Mostly, she liked to see the array of ships that came and went, all of them filled with different wares from different parts of the Lylat system and beyond. When Krystal wanted the embrace of silence to think, she went to the hangar bay, but when she needed to drown out her thoughts, the market was the best place to do so. The atmosphere buzzed with the sounds of merchants calling out their wares to patrons. There was always the smell of different foods hanging in the air. The smell of roasted nuts are particularly pungent today, and Krystal pushes her way into the throng of animals to find whatever stall is selling them.  
The market is particularly crowded today, and Krystal has to weave through a variety of different animals just to be able to move forward into the center of the marketplace. As she studies the different stalls, she sees all kinds of different wares for sale. A tigress sells herbal medicines at one stand. At another, a badger hovers over an assortment of different cogs and machine parts. Something about his demeanor tells Krystal that he didn't stumble upon all those parts haphazardly. She had come to find out that many of the goods in the marketplace were stolen, and purchasing the wrong items could get you into trouble. She'd learnt quickly to vet whatever materials she was going to buy, especially machinery, to make sure that it was legitimate.  
Further into the crowd, the scent of the roasted nuts grows stronger as she progresses, and her stomach urges her ahead with an angry growl. Her nose tells her that she is getting close. She feels her mouth grow wet in anticipation. She pushes past a heavily armored space pirate and ignores his complaints at her incursion when she makes the mistake of making eye-contact with one of the vendors.

A dark-furred weasel with gleaming eyes smiles a wide grin that shows all of his small, white, pointed teeth. "Princess", he cries out to her. "It is the princess of Lylat! May I say what an honor it is, my highness." The weasel inclines his head to her as she approaches. His fearsome grin never fades, even as he says, "Please, would the princess humble me by browsing my collection of jewels? They sparkle, yes, but not as brightly as her highness's eyes."

Krystal passes off his compliments with a polite smile. She is uncertain as to when the populace began to refer to her as 'the princess of Lylat', but it was a term of endearment that surfaced after the Aparoid Invasion, when Fox and her were still involved with one another. Their romance had been attractive, apparently, and the Cornerians had adopted her as an idol. They'd called her a princess. But, after the events of the Anglar Blitz and her defection to Star Wolf, the name had quickly soured and turned into an insult.  
Krystal assumes that the vendor is invoking the term's better connotation. _Besides_ , she thinks, _it would be an odd business practice to insult your customers._

"Does the lady see something that she likes?" The weasel asks as he watches her inspect his collection of jewels and trinkets.

A diamond barrette, fashioned into the shape of a scarab, catches her eye. She holds it up above her and watches as the lights of the station glimmer off its surface.

The vendor, ever grinning, says, "A pretty brooch for a pretty girl! She is already a princess, but this will make her look like a queen, yes." He swipes his tongue across his teeth.

Krystal hadn't intended to buy anything but the nuts. However, the piece reminds her so much of Sauria that she asks, "How much?"

Before the vendor can answer, a deep voice purrs, "Surely it would be free for a beautiful vixen such as this."

Krystal tenses as Panther appears next to her. The black feline tosses a bag of credits at the weasel who catches it with a satisfied and impossibly wider smile. As he undoes the strings on the bag, a mass of coins rain down onto the counter in front of him, and Krystal notes that there are certainly more credits in the bag than the barrette is worth.

"My lovely Krystal", Panther clasps the vixen's shoulders and pulls her in for an embrace. When they are parted, he takes the barrette from her and uses it to pin her sapphire hair behind her ear. He leans back to admire his handiwork.

"You look radiant, my darling space rose." He turns her toward a mirror by the weasel's stand and admires her reflection.

Krystal studies herself in the mirror as Panther's yellow eyes gleam hungrily over her shoulder. Each one of his breaths pummels the side of her face with hot air.

"How do you feel?"

 _Like a piece of meat_ , she thinks.

"Beautiful," she lies.

Panther's maw curls into a happy grin as he says, "Good! Good." He wraps his arm around her shoulders, and guides her back into the chaos of the marketplace. "I haven't seen you for a while. What has kept you so busy that you couldn't come see your Panther, huh?" He chuckles deeply and squeezes Krystal's smaller frame.

Krystal uses his question as an opportunity. "I made a deal with Wolf this morning about the CloudRunner. He's going to give me the credits to fix up the ship and he'll get the profit if it sells on the market."

"What will you fly if the CloudRunner sells," Panther asks.

Her response to him is delayed by their arrival at the stand that is selling the roasted nuts that she's been craving since she arrived. The vendor gives them each a package, and Panther pays for them both.

Krystal pops a handful of nuts into her mouth. "He says I'm getting a new Wolfen."

"So soon before flight training?"

She grunts in confirmation, and is glad that she's not the only one surprised by the lupine's decision.

"Well," Panther crunches away on a nut, "I'm glad that you're getting a new ship. Your old one was falling apart."

Krystal, irritated at his use of past tense- the CloudRunner was still very much in her possession- and everyone's apparent desire to insult her ship, quips, "It looks just fine!"

"It was nothing compared to our Wolfens."

"I don't need a new ship! I don't understand why O'Donnell wants to give me one."

"It's an initiation."

Her eyes go wide. Her heart skips a beat in her chest. When she realizes she looks dumbfounded, she fixes her expression and looks to see if Panther caught a glimpse of her surprise. Luckily, his gaze was elsewhere.

"An initiation," she echoes.

Her tone turns Panther's head. He chews thoughtfully on his snack before saying, "My beloved, of course it is an initiation. Wolf isn't your friend. He isn't just giving you a Wolfen. He's expecting you to commit to the team."

The sapphire vixen nearly chokes on her meal. She recovers and says, "I didn't think about it that way."

Panther purrs in response, apparently delighted at the fact that he is the first to point this out to her. Then, "With flight training on Friday, you won't have that much time to learn how to pilot a new ship."

Krystal's ears perk up. _I won't have to ask for his help if he offers it first_ , she thinks. "It's not fair. It's not a lot of time." _Please, don't make me ask._

Panther pops the last nut into his mouth. He chews. He swallows. He looks her in the eyes and says, "No. It's not a lot of time at all."

 _Fuck._

She abandons her coy approach and asks outright. "Would you be able to help me learn the controls before Friday?"

Panther barely allows her to get the words out of her mouth before saying, "Of course! Anything for my darling space rose." He kisses her on the cheek before she can react. As he pulls away, he has a knowing smirk on his maw.

 _He knew all along I was going to need his help_ , Krystal thinks. She does her best to hide her irritation. "O'Donnell said the Wolfen should be ready by tomorrow."

"Lovely," Panther chirps. "We can start then. I'm looking forward to spending the week together."

 _Great,_ Krystal thinks as Panther walks away, _just fantastic._ She is not looking forward to the coming week. Not at all.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm going to try and update this story every Sunday evening, but take this message with a grain of salt. I've got several events coming up in my personal life and I may not get as much time to write, but I'll do my best! Thank you in advance to everyone who's reading, and a big thank you to those who read and review.


	3. A Confrontation

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 3: A Confrontation

Location: Sargasso Space Station

Time: 2200 hours

* * *

As evening falls, the traffic on the ground floor of the station begins to dissipate. Krystal had hoped that the bedlam of the market would keep her from ruminating on the nervous thoughts that continue to plague her mind, but she is disappointed to find that, as the lights overhead begin to dim, her psyche is still deeply troubled. Though she knows it is futile, she stays on the edge of the market for as long as she can, watching the various vendors pack up their wares and break down their stalls for the night. Some of them load their things into their ships with the intent to travel to other destinations. Others carry their loads to their rooms as they retire for the evening, waiting until dawn to set up shop again and see what tomorrow brings.  
A few of the shopkeepers recognize her as they pass. More than one of them glances at her before whispering to themselves under their breath. Though she cannot hear, Krystal is certain that they are not saying good things.

She is suddenly reminded of an expression that Peppy had told her once when he was still aboard the Great Fox. It was something that was unfamiliar to her as her people in Cerinia didn't have anything like it. She remembers that it was a saying that she thought was rather silly, especially for a group of mercenaries. Wracking her brain, she whispers it to herself as it comes to her, "What you don't know can't hurt you".

 _What foolishness,_ she thinks.

"I don't understand", she had said to Peppy. "What you don't know could absolutely hurt you. Why would anyone say that?"

Peppy had chuckled at her ignorance. "It only means that leaving someone in the dark about something keeps them from the burden of worrying about it."

Even now, as she leans against the wall of the space station, Krystal is still not laughing. She watches the last few vendors pack up their things, and decides that wasting any more time on the ground floor is pointless. Making her way to the elevator, she has only just stepped inside when an ape soldier joins her.

"What floor?" Krystal asks since she had already positioned herself in front of the panel.

"Two." The ape removes her helmet, revealing startlingly beautiful blue eyes and a dark mohawk of fur on the top of her head. She runs her eyes over Krystal, but doesn't say anything to further the conversation. In fact, the pair don't speak to one another again, until the elevator rumbles to a halt. The doors slide open and the ape walks out, her helmet tucked under her arm. Just as the doors begin to close, however, she turns to Krystal and says, "You should be more careful with Lord O'Donnell."

Krystal hesitates for a moment, uncertain if her mind is playing tricks on her, or if she had really heard the ape say something to her. She stands dumbfounded, then darts forward at the last moment, and sticks her forearm in the crevice of the closing doors.

"Excuse me?"

"Lord O'Donnell."

"What about him?"

"I overheard you two talking in the hangar bay this morning; the way you stood up to him when he said he was going to take your ship." The ape fixes her with a piercing gaze. "He's killed people for less, y'know."

Krystal cocks her head, intrigued more than anything with the soldier's warning. "Why did he agree to fix my ship, then?"

"I don't know." She shrugs. "He didn't do it 'cause he's got the sweets for you like that philanderer Caruso. He's not that kind of guy. But, what I do know, is that Lord O'Donnell isn't your friend. He's not your mentor. He's not someone to fuck around with." The ape dons her helmet and gives Krystal a smirk that she may have meant to be friendly, but it only unnerves the vixen more. "This shit that you signed up for when you asked him for a spot on the team will get a pretty girl like you killed. You'll see," she says. "You should've stayed with McCloud."

Krystal waits for the elevator doors to close before she wraps her arms around herself to hide her uneasiness.

* * *

In the solace of her bedroom, the vixen feels as unsettled as ever. She tosses and turns in the darkness, and wonders what she will do about training on Friday. With Wolf's gift of a new ship, and Panther's insight, flight training felt more and more like an exam, one she didn't have the answers to. The cryptic warning from the ape soldier on the way to her room certainly hadn't helped.  
As Krystal rolls onto her side, she catches a glimpse of the time from her digital clock on the nightstand. The boxy red letters tell her that it is just past one a.m. She flips onto her back and groans and runs her hands down her face.

 _Why had Wolf agreed to fix the CloudRunner?_ _He had every authority, and reason, to deny her request. The ship was old, so the parts were going to be even more expensive to replace. It was a decent craft, but nothing flashy like the Arwings or the Wolfens. So, what was the lupine's reasoning?_

Krystal ponders the ape's words. _He's not that kind of guy._ She thinks of everything he's not. _Charitable, amiable, affectionate._

The vixen is completely stumped, but she doesn't quite care to solve the mystery of Wolf's intentions in the present moment. She had far more pressing issues, like what she was going to do if Panther's intuition about Friday's training proved to be correct. If it truly was an initiation, then, pass or fail, she was going to have to make hard decisions. She decides immediately that failure is out of the question.

 _I'm not running back to McCloud._

But, if she proved herself, then she'd be a permanent member of StarWolf. She didn't necessarily have anything against being part of the team, and it wasn't as if she hadn't involved herself with them before. But, her participation with them in the Anglar Blitz had been merely out of convenience. She'd wanted to fuck with Fox as much as Wolf had, so he'd let her trod along, just so he could see the look on the vulpine's face when he saw Krystal with his adversaries. She'd wanted to be his femme fatale. She'd wanted to make him hurt. She realizes that she still wants to make him hurt, and so she is determined to cement her position on the team, even if it kills her. Her newfound confidence leaves her pacing the room in the chilled evening air until a voice niggles to life in the back of her head.

 _You can't even fly the damn ship. How are you going to pass the test?_

Krystal grits her teeth. _Panther._ She was going to have to spend the entirety of the week with _Panther_.

"Trapped in a cockpit with Caruso," she reminds herself. She pinches the bridge of her nose and breathes out an exasperated sigh. She hates herself for thinking about everything that could go wrong with her training because once it is in her head, she can't seem to get it out. She paces her room for another few minutes, before deciding that she is too unnerved to go to bed. Instead, she throws on her night clothes and slips out into the hall.

* * *

The third floor is all quiet and dimly lit. She is not quite certain where she is going, so she lets her feet guide her as she idly wanders. She doesn't have much room to roam, however, as the floor only consisted of the team's rooms, the main control center, and Wolf's suite. She heads in the opposite direction of the control room, knowing that the hallway that contained it would be bustling with guards switching shifts or taking their breaks.  
Normally, when she wandered late at night, she would find herself in the hangar bay, enjoying the pensive silence and the view of space through the air lock. But, something tells her that the image of her brand new Wolfen sitting in place of the CloudRunner wouldn't do well for her already troubled mind. Nevertheless, something in her desires the tranquility of space, and so she finds herself in front of one of two bay windows on the third floor. The other was in front of Wolf's suite, and while the two windows faced one another, they were far enough apart that Krystal could glimpse the various stars and space ships nearby.  
She sits for a long while and appreciates the silence. She definitely enjoyed the bedlam of every day life, whether it was navigating the market or taking a day to wander the streets of Corneria, but there was something special about the seclusion of deep space that made her feel grounded in an ironic sort of way. It made her feel small, but in a good way, as if all of her inhibitions and problems were insignificant.  
She feels overwhelmed by the events of the day, so she sits on the floor and crosses her legs. Resting her palms on her knees, she straightens her spine. She rolls her shoulders back and forth. She scrunches them up to her chin, and slowly decompresses. There, in the middle of the hallway, she sits, and she meditates, breathing in and breathing out. Slowly. Controlled. Measured.

 _Inhale._

 _Hold._

 _Exhale._

 _Breathe._

She sits and she focuses on her breathing, forcing everything else out of her mind. It feels like hours before she is interrupted by a strange feeling in her gut, as if someone is watching her. She tries to shake it, but she finds that it won't die so easily. When she opens her eyes, she scans the hallway, but no one is there. Turning back around, she prepares to start her meditation again, until she glimpses a figure standing at the other window.

It's unmistakably Wolf.

Krystal tenses as his gaze sweeps across the space in between them. For a moment, she thinks that he has overlooked her. But, then his eyes settle on her seated form. She is too far away to see the expression on his face. Part of her has a deep desire to reach out and touch his psyche to see what he is thinking, but she knows that if he discovered her using her telepathy on him- she doesn't even dare to consider how he'd react to such a personal invasion.

The two stare at one another for longer than Krystal is comfortable with. She squirms under his heavy gaze, but remains seated, not wanting to give away her nervousness. Her discomfort lasts only a moment longer. Without warning, Wolf swishes his tail and walks off, disappearing from view.

She shakes off the encounter and thinks briefly of going back to bed. However, the adrenaline of being caught up by Wolf has only served to awaken her more. Whatever weariness had settled on her before was now gone completely along with whatever focus her previous meditation had brought her. She decides to try once more.

She has only just gotten through one cycle of breathing when a voice makes her jump, "What are you doing up?"

She tilts her head back to look up at Wolf as he stands over her. "Meditating."

Wolf cocks his head to the side. "You can't do that in your room?"

"No. It's suffocating in there, and I wanted a better view." She hesitates for a moment. The ape's warning is still fresh in her mind, and whatever confidence she had in her ability to navigate conversations with Wolf is now deeply shaken. She'd gotten used to his authoritative personality, the Lord O'Donnell she knew during battles and warfare. This personality however, the glimpse of his demeanor when there wasn't an immediate threat, it was all new terrain for her. He looks out of place, standing over her in the hall in the middle of the night with a coffee mug in one hand and the other resting on his hip. He looks almost pedestrian.

She takes a deep breath, and then asks, "Why aren't you asleep?"

Wolf takes a large sip from the mug that he is holding. "Business."

"This late at night?"

He grunts a confirmation. Before she can react, he crosses in front of her and lowers himself to the floor beside her. He raises his mug to his lips and drinks before addressing Krystal's bewildered expression. "What?" He asks. "You want me to keep staring at you through my own window?" He gestures to his suite on the other side of the station.

Krystal utters a soft apology, but can't think of anything else to say. She considers telling him about her confrontation in the elevator, but decides against it. She wants to ask him why he has agreed to fix the Cloudrunner, as well, but she doesn't want to seem like she is questioning his decision, either. Instead, she keeps her mouth shut.

They sit in silence for what seems like forever. Krystal pretends to watch the little activity on the space front, but she keeps sneaking glances of Wolf out of the corner of her eye. The way that he is sitting places her at his left side where she can see his good eye studying the scene in front of them.

His chest swells suddenly, and she watches him stifle a yawn. "Tell me what you find so beautiful about space, princess."

Krystal isn't quite certain what to say. She doesn't quite know what attracts her to space, so she says the first thing that comes to mind. "I just-I don't know. I look at it, and I see all the possibilities it has to offer. All the different worlds, the peoples. There's whole systems out there that we don't know about, yet."

"That's pretty poetic for something that could kill you in an instant."

Krystal feels her cheeks blush in embarrassment. She opens her mouth to defend herself, but nothing comes out. She is grateful when Wolf changes the subject.

"Panther tells me that you asked him for help with the Wolfen."

"I did." Krystal says. "He's very excited about it, I'm sure."

"Trust me," Wolf says. "If he weren't such a good pilot, I'd tan his hide. I had to threaten his life before I could get him to cut that third person bullshit. But, then again, he comes from money, so he's used to getting what he wants."

"I've noticed." She can't keep her tail from swishing angrily behind her as she says, "A whole week with me and him alone together in a cockpit. It must be a wet dream come true for him."

At first, she is angry with herself for not guarding her tongue. But, then, she thinks she sees a smile tug at the corner of Wolf's maw. Before she can be certain, however, the communication link on his wrist chirps to life and he glances down at it with a frown. He squares his shoulders, and just like that, he has stepped back into his authoritative demeanor. He rises.

"Go to bed," he tells her. "You need your rest if you're going to do well later in the week."

He doesn't wait for her to get up, and so she is forced to creep back to her room alone where she promptly falls into the comfort of her bed and sleeps undisturbed until the morning.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Many apologies for the late chapter. For some reason, I just couldn't get through this one. I'll try and get one up by Sunday, again. But, I can already tell you that the fifth chapter, the one after the next, will almost certainly be delayed due to personal matters (Read: family vacation and a birthday). Many thank to those who are reading, though.


	4. An Altercation

_**Trigger Warning:**_ Description of physical abuse. Please do not read past the **third page break** if descriptions of physical abuse could potentially upset you. You can skip this section without missing a detrimental amount of the story.

* * *

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 4: An Altercation

Location: Sargasso Space Station

Time: 1200 hours

* * *

"The Wolfen is equipped with more gravity blades than the Arwing or CloudRunner, so you'll have less trouble piloting when entering the atmosphere or flying in close-range of an orbit."

Krystal listens intently as Panther describes the key structural differences between her new Wolfen and the ships that she is used to piloting. She had come down to the hangar bay in the morning and found a ship other than the CloudRunner awaiting her. The Wolfen was larger and sleeker than anything she had piloted before with its crimson and silver exterior. As Krystal had walked around it, running a hand over the smooth metal body, she had noticed the glint of the lights off the surface. It'd been freshly waxed. The ship was literally brand new. She'd wondered if she was the first person to touch it since it'd come away from the manufacturers.

"Of course, Sargasso doesn't have an orbit. The thrusters below us keep the station static, so you won't need to rely on the blades for much of anything." Panther explains as he perches on the wing, looking in on Krystal as she adjusts to the cockpit.

The inside of the Wolfen has a dark interior. The seat is black leather, the floor covered in black carpeting, and the control panel is littered with a variety of different gauges, buttons, and switches, all outlined in black. Everything about it screams luxury.

"It's nice," Krystal says as she runs a hand over the dashboard in front of her. She tenses as Panther drops into the extra seat behind her.

"Of course," he purrs into her ear. "Nothing but the finest for the heroes of Lylat. Wolf made sure of that when he invested in a new design for the Wolfens." His every word drips with the smugness of his self-centered ego. "The Arwing used to be the most powerful craft in Lylat, but these ships outrank it by far."

Krystal flattens her ears at his mention of the Arwing. It is a poorly concealed jab at StarFox, and while Krystal loathed the vulpine who acted as their leader, she still had the deepest respect for the other pilots. She hurries to change the subject.

"Do all the wings have ailerons?"

"Yes." Panther leans forward and points to a series of switches to her left. "You have to be careful with these. You have more power, and so you're going to turn faster and sharper than you're used to. You're going to roll harder, as well, so don't put yourself into a spin that you can't handle the force of. Passing out in the middle of space is just as bad as passing out in the atmosphere of some planet. Except, here, you'll hit the station or an asteroid before anyone can revive you."

"Lovely". Krystal imagines that Wolf would shoot her down himself before he let her damage Sargasso by flying an aircraft into it.

The next few hours see her and Panther going over the different instruments and controls. Although she comes to find that the layout of the control panel is vastly different from that of the Arwing of her own CloudRunner, seeing everything in front of her, seeing that it is material and able to be mastered makes the idea of learning it less daunting. Still, she knows that she is going to have to hunker down and study if she is going to have the ship mastered by the end of the week.

She is just beginning to study the flight manual laid out in her lap when she feels the ghost of Panther's fingertip drawing soft circles into the fur of her shoulder.

"What is it?" she asks as she turns in her chair, deliberately removing herself from his touch.

He has the same hungry look in his eyes that he did yesterday in the market. "I think we've done enough work for today. You don't want to burn yourself out. We could grab a bite to eat, and then, maybe something else?"

She ignores the vagueness of his question, and instead says, "Food sounds delicious."

Panther doesn't seem satisfied. "I could cook us something if you wanted to come back to my room."

 _But, I don't want to._

Krystal bites her tongue before the words can slip out of her mouth. As tired as she is of combating Panther's numerous advances on her, she doesn't want to risk upsetting him. He is the only one who can help her prepare for her alleged initiation.  
She forces a smile onto her maw. "I was thinking of getting something from the market. They're always making something exciting," she says as innocently as she can.

"Sure." Panther says. His hopeful expression falters, but he follows her willingly out of the cockpit.

* * *

The market is not as crowded as before, but Krystal and Panther still have to weave their way through countless animals to find a stall that is selling food. Krystal works her way toward a vendor who is waving something intriguing on a stick, but Panther takes one look at it and sneers.

"I could use a first class meal," he says, "not this unsavory street food. I'm used to dining in the finest restaurants on Corneria. Even my favorite cafe that was totaled in the Aparoid Invasion reopened, and now they treat me like royalty. Surely we can find something better than this."

Krystal shakes her head, but steers away from the food, anyway. Before Panther gets any ideas, she says, "It's much too late to head to the ground for a meal, and we'd have to go through the trouble of telling Ruffian to tell Wolf that we're leaving. It's just more convenient to get something here." She continues to look around, and even pulls Panther further into the marketplace to find something better suited to his taste. They are struggling through a heavily crowded area when she happens to look to her right, and exclaims, "Pukpuk eggs!"

"What?" Panther eyes her discovery with uncertainty.

She pulls the unwilling feline over to a stall that is headed by a Sharpclaw. She has never seen one of the muscled reptiles so far from Sauria before. Asking for permission in Saurian, Krystal picks up one of the eggs to show to Panther, who regards it as if it were something debased.

"Oh, please, Panther," she says as she notes his hesitation, "They're delicious, and good for you. They come from Sauria, the planet I told you about. They're a delicacy. You must try one."

He looks at her with his ears flattened to either side, obviously trying to decide what to do. When he speaks, his voice is dripping with distrust. "You're certain we can't just have a nice filet? Some wine, maybe? A dessert?"

She shakes her head. "Come on. You'll love it once you've tried it." She turns to the Sharpclaw and asks for two of the eggs. However, when she asks how much it'll cost, he shakes his head and tells her in a heavy accent, "No, no, no, no. For you, free! I remember the purple vixen. She comes to free us from evil Scales. For you, free! As many as you like! Free!"

Krystal smiles and thanks him, before turning to Panther with her widest grin, as if to say, _Look! It's a bargain. Who needs your dumb first-class food?_

Panther merely huffs in discontent. It is half-hearted, however, and when they find a place to sit, he digs into the Pukpuk egg with more certainty than before.

She watches him take his first few bites. "It's good, isn't it?"

"It's decent, I guess." He concedes.

She stifles a victorious giggle and turns her head to watch the crowds of the market. It is only a few minutes later that her eyes fall on the small group of animals gathered around a ragged looking rodent standing on a crate. He is speaking and gesturing wildly to the crowd. She watches as a few of the animals below him nod in agreement. However, most of the bystanders stay silent, while some seem to be listening only in passing. Some have nervous looks on their faces, as if what the rodent is preaching is something blasphemous or forbidden.

She watches them a little longer before her curiosity grows too much for her to contain. "Panther," she asks, "what's going on over there?" She raises her hand to point at the small gathering of animals, which has now grown to a decent size, but the feline catches her arm before she can fully extend it.

"It's nothing," he says, rather too quickly.

"It's not nothing. What is it?"

Panther gives her a look that clearly translates to, _Shut up about it_.

She won't be satisfied, though. She lays down the remains of her Pukpuk egg, and starts to rise out of her chair.

Panther makes a discontent, almost pleading, noise in the back of his throat.

"Krystal! Sit back down," he hisses. He grabs her hand before she can rise any further and clings to her, preventing her from investigating the matter on her own. When the vixen struggles, his grasp on her tightens.

"Let go!"

"Sit back down, now."

"Panther, seriously. What is your problem?"

He nearly pulls her over the table as he struggles to get her to regain her seat.

Krystal quickly realizes that she will not win the tug of war between them, and so she resorts to other measures. She fixes the black feline with a hard gaze, her eyes narrowed. "Tell me what's going on and I'll sit down, yeah?"

"Fine!" He whispers heatedly. "Come with me."

Finally allowing her to rise, but keeping a firm grip on her arm, he steers them far enough away from the crowd that they can remain inconspicuous to its participants and still hear the rodent's voice as it carries across the marketplace. Whatever he is touting, he is unashamed of it.

Panther leans down and hisses into her ear, "Don't draw attention to yourself. You'll only make things worse."

"Make what worse?" She questions angrily.

The rodent pays not attention to them as he continues speaking to his audience. His beady eyes search the faces below as he bellows, "This so called _Lord_ O'Donnell is a scoundrel! He capitalizes off Andross's rebellions, and helps the great Andross's enemies stomp out what's left of the resistance. He pretends to be a hardened criminal, but we all know Corneria has him in his pocket. He's a traitor to our kind. He needs to be removed, permanently!"

"What?" Krystal whispers incredulously to herself.

"Just yesterday," the rodent continues, "the great and respected Urso was arrested for smuggling war machines to the remainder of Andrew Oikonny's resistance. Urso was a famous smuggler in these parts. He had a reputation, a lucrative business. He was careful, too! But, someone tipped the Cornerian forces off to his whereabouts."

At this proclamation, the crowd stirs angrily with scattered shouts of outrage.

"Who could it have been, but that cur O'Donnell? The one who dares to call himself _Lord,_ and yet turns on his own kind so easily!"

"How do you know?" A voice from somewhere shouts at the speaker. "How do you know it was Lord O'Donnell?"

"How do I know?" The rodent says, as if the inquirer has just offered him a challenge. "Urso was here at Sargasso just days before the Cornerian forces ambushed him out of nowhere on an anonymous tip. A tip that led to his exact location. Who could've known where he was, what his cargo was, where he was headed to except the two-faced mongrel who runs this joint! He would've known! He would've recognized Urso. His guards would have been able to access Urso's ship, his flight records, his logs while Urso was lodging here.

"Wolf O'Donnell is a stain on this system that must be removed! Look what he's done in the past few years. He thwarted Andross's last great rebellion when he razed the Anglarian Empire with none other than the so-called " _Princess of Lylat_ " by his side. Yes! He allows such a defector into his ranks. Fox McCloud's vixen! A foreign bitch who knows no loyalties."

Krystal opens her mouth to shout out, but Panther is already dragging her away. The jeers and taunts from the speaker and his crowd fade away.

When they have cleared the marketplace and Panther releases her, she turns on him. "Someone should say something! We should tell Wolf. That animal is dangerous. He's turning people against him."

Panther merely shakes his head, unmoved by Krystal's indignation.

"What?" She huffs. She was clearly missing something.

"Wolf is already aware that half the station hates his guts for choosing Corneria's side in the war," he explains. "But, it doesn't matter-"

"It does too matter!"

"-it doesn't matter because no one has the nerve or the power to challenge him, and no one will if he's backed by Corneria. Trust me, this is Wolf's territory. No one's stupid enough to challenge him on his turf." Panther grips her arm again before she can say anything. "And don't go getting yourself into trouble by trying to defend his honor or some bullshit like that. They'll tear you apart. Like I said, you'll only make things worse."

Krystal is still quivering in anger, but she compels herself to remain compliant. "Fine," she says, mainly to satisfy Panther so he will release his vice grip on her upper arm.

"Training again tomorrow morning," he tells her before she can escape.

"Yes, fine."

* * *

The next few days follow the same routine as the first. Krystal meets Panther for training in the morning, and they spend hours going through the different controls of the Wolfen. Panther quizzes her on the different instruments, and finds that she is rapidly improving, and seems to be mastering the new ship relatively quickly.  
While Krystal is overjoyed that she is showing great aptitude, her success means that Panther keeps trying to reward her with different displays of affection each time she gets something right. He caresses her shoulders, her cheeks, her hair. He squeezes her thigh and kisses her cheeks, and all the while Krystal does what she can to avoid his increasingly bold advances without upsetting him.

It is only Wednesday when he finally snaps.

She has docked from a mock dogfight with some drones, which she has successfully, though arduously, shot down. She knows that she is going to have to be quicker in order to satisfy Wolf on Friday, but Panther is more than elated with her performance. As she jumps down from her cockpit, he overwhelms her in a bear hug that is so intense that it lifts her off the ground. When he puts her down, he kisses her.

Krystal seizes in surprise before coming to her senses and pushing him away. "Panther!" she exclaims.

"What's wrong, my darling space rose?" He reaches for her waist.

She steps back, and everything that she had held in all week pours from her mouth, "I'm tired of this. I don't like you like that! Please, just stop. I don't want you to kiss me. I don't want you to touch me, please!"

Panther frowns at her, obviously hurt. "I don't understand. You haven't said anything all week. I thought you liked it."

"No!" She says. "I thought you could tell."

"Then, why did you ask me to help you train?"

"Because you're the only one that would! Wolf is too busy, and I didn't know if he would agree to help me, and Leon definitely wouldn't. You were my last option, and Wolf suggested that-" She can see that Panther is still frustrated because his expression hasn't changed.

"I'm sorry," she offers, though it doesn't come out as generous as she'd hoped for.

Panther's frown softens just a bit, though his ears are still pinned against his head. He says, "Can I at least walk you back to your room?"

Krystal opens her mouth to object, but she feels as though she has truly hurt him. "Sure. Fine."

The pair walk together in silence. Panther looks straight ahead, while Krystal stares at the floor. She sneaks glances up at him every once in a while. His expression doesn't change for much of the duration of their journey. They have only just reached the third floor when Krystal looks up at him and says, "Panther, I'm sorry. I thought you could tell that I didn't like it, and-"

"You used me," He says. His voice is deep, and threatening.

"No," she says. "I didn't meant to. It's just a misunderstanding."

She barely gets the words out before he seizes her by the shoulders and slams her into the wall. _Hard._ She crumples to the ground, numb with surprise and adrenaline.

"You used me!" Panther cries out. He backhands her, sending her crashing to the floor on her side. Before she can recover, he picks her up again, shaking her violently, "I got you your spot on the team! I made sure Wolf took you in."

Krystal beats futilely against the feline's grasp. "Stop!"

He slams her against the wall, again, driving the air from her lungs. "I helped you learn the controls to the ship so you wouldn't get kicked out!"

He throws her to the ground, and she feels the back of her head bounce against the metal floor. Her ears are ringing, drowning out the frantic beating of her heart.

"No one uses Panther! No one!"

She tries to fight him, but her limbs won't move fast enough. He grasps her arms. She squirms as his weight settles onto her hips.

He leans down and suddenly smiles cruelly at her. "I think I like you better on your back."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** A bit of a longer chapter, but hopefully satisfactory. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to planes or flying, so please excuse my blunders if I got anything wrong. I also know next to nothing about space or how a fighter-jet-like aircraft, or any aircraft for that matter, would behave under those conditions. But, StarFox is fictional, so I did a little research about planes, and then made stuff up. As I said in my note for the previous chapter, Ch.5 is going to be delayed, so please enjoy this frustrating cliffhanger.


	5. A Disturbing Notification

_**Trigger Warning:**_ Descriptions of physical assault. Please skip to the second page break if descriptions of physical assault make you uncomfortable.

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 5: A Disturbing Notification

Location: Sargasso Space Station

Time: 2000 hours

* * *

Krystal struggles underneath Panther as he sets his weight down heavily upon her hips. She finds herself trapped between his thighs, and she cries out in frustration as she finds that her legs are useless when they are pinned underneath his weight. A swift kick to his groin was not going to save her this time. He'd clearly learned his lesson. He had her immobilized and alone.

She shouts in frustration.

"Get off, Panther! Get off or else." She stares him down with a firm gaze, though her heart is beating frantically in her chest.

"What are you going to do about it?" Panther chuckles as he leans over her. He suffers a few well-placed punches before he is able to pin her wrists to the floor above her head.

Krystal sneers at him as his position brings them muzzle to muzzle. She can feel his hot breath on her cheeks. "Let me go, or I swear I'll scream." It is an empty threat, and both of them know it. There is no one close enough to hear her. The control room was too far away for anyone to notice. Leon wouldn't care. She had no idea where Wolf was.

Krystal moves her face away from the black feline as he leans in closer. He is still wearing his stupidly pleased grin. His yellow eyes gleam with the same disturbing hunger he showed in the marketplace as he whispers, "Oh, I can make you scream, Princess."

She is so revolted by him that she barely thinks before slamming her forehead into his snout.

There is the sound of bone against bone, and then she feels Panther's weight shift as he recoils.

"Argh! You little bitch." Panther cries out as he cradles his nose. When his hands come away, she can see that they are slick with blood. "You shouldn't have done that." He suddenly grasps her face, leaving crimson fingerprints on her cheeks. "I'll make you pay for that, you-"

"Lord O'Donnell!"

Krystal feels both of them tense as a voice rings out down the hall. Her heart flutters. She looks up at Panther who glances between her and the end of the hall.

Footsteps resound, and for a fleeting moment Krystal thinks that Wolf has walked the other way. But, then,

"What business does Corneria have sending an emissary unannounced?!"

Her hearts soars as she hears Wolf's familiar bass echo from somewhere just around the corner. She recognizes his heavy footfall coming closer and closer. There is someone else with him, following close behind. Above her, Panther utters a noise of frustration, and discontent. His broken nose drips blood onto her forehead.

"With all due respect, sir, your previous reputation spawns a desire for scrutiny in some Cornerian minds."

"My previous reputation was wiped clean after the Anglar Blitz."

"Some agreed with General Hare's amnesty. Others. . ."

She hears Wolf give a terse laugh that almost resembles a bark. " _Others_. You mean others like that child, Bowman."

Krystal twists herself onto her stomach, and realizes with a shock that Panther's weight is no longer there. When she looks back, he has disappeared, and just in time. Wolf comes barreling around the corner with a canine following him closely albeit openly struggling to keep his swift pace.

"You _were_ told that an emissary was being sent." The canine says.

Wolf wheels on him and bares his teeth. "I was told you were coming at the end of the week, not any earlier." He turns on his heel and makes eye contact with her. His eyes fly to the side of her face, then her bleeding nose. "What are you doing?" He asks. "What happened to your head?"

"Panther-" Krystal breaks off as her eyes flash to the figure standing by Wolf. He's clad in a different uniform that she is used to seeing, but he is still wearing his familiar yellow kerchief, and the silver nameplate on his breast glints in the lights of the station. "Bill?"

"Krystal." Bill nods his head in recognition.

Wolf glances between them. "I take it you two know each other."

"He's an old friend of McCloud's", Krystal says, her voice taking on a firmer tone. She watches Bill's friendly expression melt from his face and contort into something much sterner. He certainly doesn't appreciate her associating him with O'Donnell's rival.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Wolf asks, looking down at Bill. The lupine towers over him. It makes the lesser canine look smaller than Krystal has ever considered him.

"I don't know. Is it?" Bill quips back bravely.

Wolf's eyes narrow, and then he turns back to Krystal. "Panther made you up like this?"

Krystal rushes to mediate her original response. She considers telling Wolf the truth, but Bill's presence changes her mind. If she outs Panther now, it'll confirm StarWolf as the sordid group of space pirates that all of their critics in Corneria want them to be. She shakes her head, and says a little too quickly, "Panther and I were combat training. He just got a little carried away."

"Combat training?" Wolf's tone is biting. "Why are you wasting your time with that?"

She tenses. "I just thought-"

"If I wanted you to focus on combat training, I would've asked you to. Did I ask you to focus on combat training?"

"No. But, I just-"

"What did I ask you?"

"I'm sorry," Krystal stammers. It slips out, and she mentally curses herself.

Wolf's face curls into a menacing snarl as he barks, "DID I ASK FOR A FUCKING APOLOGY?!"

"No!" She snaps. "I'm working on the Wolfen, I swear."

For all the effort he put into reminding her of his desire, Wolf doesn't seem to care much when she recites it back to him. He merely lashes his tail angrily behind him, and says, "Go. Get cleaned up."

Krystal takes one look at him and Bill, who has been standing silently through the entire exchange, and stalks past them.

* * *

In the privacy of her room, Krystal rubs the steam from the shower mirror and raises the alcohol swab to her temple. The cut is shallow, but long, and it has bled heavily. She dabs at it and hisses as the alcohol makes the wound burn. Taking a bandage from the first-aid kit in front of her, she pulls back her bangs and plasters it onto her temple. When she is finished, she allows her hands to fall limply to her sides. But, her eyes stay trained on her reflection. Along with the gauze that she has applied to her temple, there is a bandage across her nose, and another on her left cheek, just under her eye. Her tongue flicks out to wet her lips, and she feels a twinge of pain as she unintentionally touches the split on her bottom lip.

She isn't sure what to do. The vengeful part of her wants to seek out Panther and beat him bloody, while another part of her wants to disappear altogether. All she knows is that she never wants anyone to touch her like that ever again. She never wants to feel that powerless ever again.

Setting her jaw, she ties back her hair, and dresses. She kneels by her bedside and pulls a duffle bag from underneath the bed. It is already filled with clothes and toiletries, and she slings it over her shoulder before slipping out into the hall. The hallway is dimly lit and just as quiet as it was a few nights ago when she had encountered Wolf. This time, she makes certain that there is no one around before creeping to the elevator. She cringes as the machinery makes a dull hum, but if anyone hears it, they don't come to investigate. With luck, she makes it to the hangar bay without being disturbed.

Her new Wolfen is sitting in place of the CloudRunner. The reddish hue from Solar bleeds through the hangar door shield and hits the ship's surface so that it glitters softly. Krystal waists no time in admiring it, though. Hopping onto the wing, she has only just slung the duffle bag into the open cockpit when a smooth voice startles her from behind.

"Getting out while you can. I respect that."

Krystal turns so abruptly that she nearly falls from the Wolfen's wing. "It's you!" she exclaims as she finds the ape soldier from a few nights before looking up at her from the ground. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was doing my rounds when I heard the elevator come on. Thought I'd come to see who it was."

"It's just me." Krystal says.

The conversation falls flat, but neither of them turn away.

Krystal suddenly spits out the question that has been niggling in the back of her mind. "That day when we were in the elevator, and you warned me about O'Donnell. Why would you say that?"

The ape shakes her head. "He and his kind are dangerous. They think they own the space front now that StarFox is outta the picture."

"Wolf isn't dangerous." Krystal bites back. "He's done good things."

The ape scoffs harshly. "Geez, have you looked in a fucking mirror lately? You say O'Donnell's a good one, but he lets someone do you up like that." Her frosty blue eyes burn as they raze Krystal's ragged frame and the bandages on her face. "Damn, I wouldn't be surprised if that old cur did that to you himself."

Krystal scowls. "Wolf didn't do this. It was-"

"Panther?" The ape finishes her sentence before she can. She says it with such certainty that Krystal is taken aback.

"How did you know?"

"Panther burns through girls like clockwork. He's used to getting what he wants. But, the ones who resist him? They end up looking like you, or worse. You're one of the lucky ones, sweetheart."

Krystal suddenly feels nauseated. Her stomach churns. "Why doesn't somebody do something?"

"You fuck with StarWolf, you answer to O'Donnell. Besides, you really think he doesn't keep tabs on what his team does in their free time? Hell, Caruso had a reputation before O'Donnell even recruited him. He didn't care. Still doesn't. But, you're going to stand there and tell me he's a good guy? Bullshit."

Krystal shakes her head. She thinks back to just a few hours ago when Wolf stumbled across her, bloodied and bruised, in the hallway. _He knew_ , she thinks, _he knew and he didn't do anything._

The ape suddenly looks around as if to make certain that the two of them are alone. Then, she says, "Look, shit's about to go down, and you don't want to be here for it. Keep doing what you're doing, and get out while you still have your head."

"Wait," Krystal stutters. "What do you mean? Why would you tell me?"

"Us girls have to watch each other's backs, yeah?" The ape dons her helmet, and takes a few steps back as she prepares to leave. "Do yourself a favor and botch your audition. Get sent home. Shit's about to get real. O'Donnell isn't the only one in the game anymore, and he's about to be removed, permanently."

Krystal doesn't know what to say.

The ape turns to go, but before she leaves, she issues another warning, "I'll know if you tell O'Donnell."

Although the visor hides the ape's eyes, the vixen can feel them burning into her figure. She shivers and hunkers down on the wing of the Wolfen, waiting several minutes after the soldier has gone before she makes any sort of movement. She clambers into the cockpit of the Wolfen and closes the canopy. The leather seat is hard and unfamiliar, but she curls up in it all the same. The ship smells too clean, and too new inside, but she doesn't dare try to sneak off to the CloudRunner. Even at this hour of night, there would still be a little activity. Anyways, Ruffian had already caught her in the ship before, and she knew that if he did so another time, the chances of him slipping a word about her uncertainty to Wolf was slim to none.

Suddenly nervous about prying eyes, she hunkers down in the seat, and curls in on herself. Wrapping her forearms around her knees, she stares out onto the space front for as long as she can keep her eyes open. The recent events keep her up for a long while, racing through her mind: Panther's assault, Bill's arrival, the ape's warning. She has never been more unsure of her position.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Argh! I'm so sorry for the longest cliffhanger ever. Thank you for being patient, though. I obviously can't make any promises, but I am going to try and churn out more chapters for you all to read before my next big life event. Please, enjoy, and read, and review.


	6. Clarification

StarFox: A Vixen's Departure

Chapter 6: Clarification

Location: Sargasso Space Station

Time: 0800 hours

* * *

 _O'Donnell isn't the only one in the game anymore, and he's about to be removed, permanently._

Krystal sits up all night, and wonders whether or not she should tell Wolf about the ape soldier's threat. She doesn't quite know why she is grappling with the thought so much. On one hand, Panther told her that a coupe wasn't a threat, at least not on Wolf's home turf, and she supposes staging an uprising with a Cornerian emissary in attendance was suicide. On the other, the soldier had seemed menacing enough, and Krystal had garnered from Wolf's conversation with Bill that he hadn't expected a Cornerian presence until a later time. But, still, Krystal was already aware of the seeds of discourse sewn among the general population by protesters like the one she'd seen in the market, and she wonders if the ape soldier planned on fanning the flames into an uprising.

 _Could that happen?_ Krystal asks herself. _Surely neither Corneria nor O'Donnell would allow it. Wolf and his men would drive anyone who dared to cross him out of his territory, wouldn't they?_

And then there was the issue of Wolf's silence when it came to Panther's character.

 _He knew and he didn't do anything._ Krystal feels an unknown feeling churn within her. It is an odd mixture of anger, turmoil, and uncertainty. _Doesn't that make him complicit?_ She wonders to herself.

She longs for things to be as simple as they were back when she was with StarFox, then quickly realizes that they never were. If things had been simple, she wouldn't have ended up here.

"Argh", Krystal groans and runs her hands down her face. She just wanted someplace to feel like home. She hated feeling like an outsider who constantly needed to prove herself.

Her communicator suddenly chirps to life on her nightstand. Grabbing it, she stares at the message that flashes across the screen.

 _Wolf O'Donnell (8:06am): My office. Now._

Her stomach flips over in a sudden rush of nerves. She can't think of what he could possibly want, but she rises resolutely from her bed, and rushes to make herself more presentable. Slipping into the hallway, her mind races.

 _Did he know about last night? Was he going to ask her about Panther?_

Her eyebrows pull upward as she screws her face up, and she feels a slight tug at her temple. _Shit_ , she curses to herself as her hand flies to the side of her face. Her fingers brush against the bandages plastered to her snout and temple. It suddenly occurs to her that she hasn't seen Wolf since the fight, and that he hasn't had the time to study her injuries. He'd only seen her briefly after the fight, and he'd used half that time to yell at her.

The sound of a door sliding open jars her from her thoughts. She'd made it to Wolf's office without even noticing. As the door slides back, she quickly retracts her hand from her face. Hesitantly, she peers into the room.

Inside, Wolf is seated behind a mahogany desk that's piled with papers, files, and books. She can only see the crest of his white mohawk as he scrawls something on a piece of paper in front of him. The desk looks dated, but everything else in the room is modern, and sleek. Looking around, there's a leather loveseat in the corner and something that looks like a liquor cabinet next to it. The room smells strongly of coffee and whiskey.

Krystal starts as Wolf speaks. "Don't just stand there. Sit down."

Obediently, she crosses the room, and lowers herself into one of the chairs in front of his desk. Wolf continues to work on whatever is in front of him. Krystal waits. Almost instinctively, she reaches out to grasp the edge of the desk, and begins to worry the wood under her nails.

"Don't." Wolf breaks his concentration to stare at her offending hand. He glances up into her face. "It's an antique."

"Oh." She takes her hand back sheepishly.

Krystal cringes as she feels Wolf's good eye study her. If he wonders about her bandages, he doesn't say anything. He only puts his head back down and begins to scratch away at another document.

Krystal shifts in her chair. She crosses and re-crosses her legs. She studies the pattern of the rug underneath her feet and bounces her heel nervously against the leg of the chair.

"For fuck's sake," Wolf suddenly scoffs at her. "Make yourself useful and mix a fucking drink or something." He shoos her toward the liquor cabinet with his hand.

"I don't drink this early in the morning", Krystal says.

"Then, at least make me something."

She rises and opens the liquor cabinet to find a vast array of bottles. There are wines and whiskeys and rums from places she's never even heard of. Balking, she looks to Wolf for guidance.

"Do you think you can handle an Irish coffee?" He swings his chair around and produces a mug, which he promptly shoves at her.

Nodding, Krystal takes the mug from him. She can tell from the smell of it that he's already had a few. Nevertheless, she fills it with coffee, and mixes in one of the whiskeys, and a packet of sugar. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Wolf's ears perk at the sound of the cream being added, and when she gives it to him, he takes a long sip. He licks the cream off of his lips. There's a grunt of approval, and Krystal feels slightly better for no good reason at all.

"Tell me everything you know about Bill Grey", he orders her as she sits back down.

His question is one that she hadn't expected, and so she finds herself temporarily thrown off her senses. "What? Oh…um," she fidgets, but recovers hastily. "Well, he and Fox were in the academy together. They were both exceptional pilots. Fox once told me that he considered asking Bill to join StarFox, but Bill was on track to gain a really high position in the academy, and Fox didn't want to pull him away from all that, and-"

"Krystal," Wolf interjects gruffly, "can you tell me anything _useful_ about him? What does he do now?"

Krystal takes a breath, and racks her mind for some piece of information that might satisfy O'Donnell. "He's in control of some Cornerian squadrons, but if Peppy sent him as an emissary..." She allows the thought to fade, and looks to Wolf. She knows that she is onto something, but she isn't sure what.

Something flashes in Wolf's good eye. "He's not interested in the station," Wolf thinks aloud, "he's here to evaluate our defenses. I bet General Hare's using him because he's got experience with military leadership."

"Flight training."

Wolf's ears perk at Krystal's outburst. "What?"

Krystal stares at the pattern in the rug, but studies her thoughts instead, mentally checking her reasoning. _Yes. Yes, that had to be it._ "Just think about it," she tells Wolf. "Peppy could've sent anyone, but he sent Bill. And not just at any time, he sent him so he'd be here to see our flight training. He's evaluating us."

For once, Wolf seems sincerely pleased with her. He takes another long sip from his mug, and when he talks again his breath smells of dark coffee.

"Damn, Blue, you're quick." He leans back in her chair and eyes her with his purple iris. It is the first time in a while that he has looked at her in a non-predatory fashion. "I already told the boys to keep an eye on him, but if you could sidle up to him, and get an idea of what's going in his report..." Wolf lets the idea die, but his intention is clear.

"I could just read his mind," she offers somewhat jokingly.

Wolf shrugs. "Whatever." He sets his cup of coffee down, and picks up his pen. He sets out scrawling on another document, and Krystal wonders for a moment if this is her cue to leave. But, then, "Speaking of flight training, what were you doing in the hangar bay last night?"

Krystal freezes, and Wolf must take notice of it, because he says, "A guard noticed you down there last night. It was late, actually"

 _The ape soldier_ , Krystal thinks. _What else did she tell him? Does he know what I was really doing?_

"I was just practicing for the flight training tomorrow. The controls are still a little confusing. I didn't want to hinder my reaction time," she says a bit too quickly.

Wolf grunts, and Krystal isn't sure if he believes her lie or not. But, he goes on to say, "I don't want you down there tonight. You'll burn yourself out. You're a decent pilot, Krystal. Get a good night's sleep tonight, and you'll be fine tomorrow. It's only flight training, after all."

Krystal isn't sure what to say. She is suddenly struck by Wolf's aloofness, and his willingness to divulge such sage advice to her. For a moment, her anger at him dissipates, and she isn't sure how to view him. The shifts of his personality were too erratic for her to map. He was determined, but not unyielding. Certainly greedy at times, but not without reason. She thinks of how easily he stepped in and out of his authoritative demeanor a few night's back when they had met in the hallway, and she realizes for the first time why Corneria went wild for him. He was diplomatic in every way. He could be almost charming when he wanted to.

Yet again, she finds herself now knowing how to proceed. Part of her wants to tell him about the ape soldier's harbinger, and another part of her wants to out Panther. Yet, the first doesn't seem like a practical threat, and she imagines Wolf shrugging it off as Panther had. But, Panther's assault...

 _Was she ashamed of it_ , she wonders introspectively. She suddenly thinks that she must be angry at herself as well for not seeing Panther's intentions. Looking back, she can see that he had groomed her for it, desensitized her by touching her, and buying her things. Even in reviewing the hunger that had gleamed in his eyes, she wonders why she didn't see it coming. But then, she thinks of how stupid it is of her to blame herself. Why couldn't she bring herself to tell Wolf about it, then? Was she afraid that the ape soldier was right, and that Wolf didn't care? Or, even if she was wrong, would Wolf be willing to bench a pilot the day before flight training, and with a Cornerian emissary present?

Krystal shakes her head. It was all too complicated, and she wonders if she should just wait until flight training has passed, and Bill has left. If only she knew how Wolf would react, though. It would make matters so much easier. But, she found that she couldn't read him unassisted, and she didn't dare use her telekinetic powers on him without permission.

"Krystal?"

Wolf's voice breaks the vixen from her trance. She finds herself staring at the carpet, but when she looks up, Wolf is watching her intently. He looks confused, if not somewhat irritated that she has been unresponsive for some time.

"What the hell's going on? Is there something else," he asks her.

Krystal stares at him for a moment, and then asks, "What would happen if you were overthrown?"

The words roll off her tongue before she can stop them. She nearly clasps a hand over her muzzle as she is just as surprised by her boldness. She is certain that Wolf will be taken aback, if not insulted that she considered his dethronement a possibility. She grips the chair until her knuckles turn pale, expecting an outburst or some sort of chastisement.

Wolf smirks. "You've been in the marketplace."

"Wait...you know?" Krystal asks incredulously.

Wolf lays down his pen, and chortles. "You don't think that I keep tabs on what the people are saying, or who's saying it? What do you think the guards do all day? What do you think Ruffian is for?" He leans back in his chair, clearly amused by Krystal's entertainment of the idea of a successful coupe. He stretches, then leans forward to place his elbow's on the desk. "Sargasso has only ever fallen once, and that's because you idiots attacked when I wasn't here, and because it was you idiots who were attacking. Anyone else who would have the gall to try would fail, but everyone knows better than to challenge me on my home turf."

Krystal stutters, not knowing what to say. "But, what about the protestor, and Urso?"

"Oh, hell. Yeah, I tipped Corneria off about Urso, but only because that thief stole tech that was from Sargasso. Plus, I made a deal with Corneria. If I turn in an illegal trader here and there, maybe a big player every now and again, then they keep their noses out of my private dealings."

Krystal frowns at this, though Wolf seems rather pleased with himself.

"As for that protestor in the marketplace, the rodent, his name is Whitey. He's all bark and no bite. He's got no backing, so don't worry about it."

Krystal sighs. She feels as if a great weight has been lifted off of her.

"I'm untouchable, Krys. Don't worry about it." He scratches idly under the strap of his eyepatch. "I guess I'd pray that I never get overturned, though. If I do, Corneria'll blast us out of the sky. If I fall, the station falls. But, as long as I'm still standing, we're good. Those were the terms."

Krystal doesn't know how to respond to the fact that Wolf has bound his vitality to that of the station, but the idea both inspires and terrifies her. She thinks of Peppy crashing the Great Fox into the Aparoid homeworld, and again, she finds herself struck by the knowledge that she doesn't know Wolf that well at all. She never imagined that he'd care about Sargasso enough to tie his life to it.

"Do me a favor and make me another drink before you go," Wolf says.

She takes his mug and mixes another coffee for him before she makes a move to leave.

"Stop worrying about things you can't control, Krystal. Take a day off, and get ready for tomorrow."

She nods, though Wolf has already gone back to his paperwork. She studies him for a few seconds longer, before slipping out into the hallway.

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Wow, look at that. I churned out another chapter in just two days or so. On another note, thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. However, please note that I can't reply to anonymous reviews (either because it's not possible, or because I'm not tech savvy enough), so if you have a burning question about the story, feel free to PM me, and I'll do my best to reply. Please, no cursing or asking for spoilers, though. Thanks, again, and, as always, enjoy.


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